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The Journal of Neuroscience, 0000, 20:RC72:1-5

RAPID COMMUNICATION
Cerebral Asymmetry of the "Top-Down" Allocation of Attention to Global and Local Features

Shuhei Yamaguchi, Shingo Yamagata, and Shotai Kobayashi

Department of Internal Medicine III (Neurology), Shimane Medical University, Izumo 693-8501, Japan

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have indicated that global and local features of a visual scene are processed differentially by the two hemispheres. Although visual selective attention is suggested to play a role in the hemispheric asymmetry, the precise mechanism of attentional control for the global-local processing is not fully understood. We investigated the neural correlates of cerebral asymmetry in directing attention to the global pattern and local components of a hierarchical stimulus. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while the subjects shifted their attention to the global or local level of a hierarchically structured letter. The shift direction was controlled by a preceding cue stimulus. The ERPs to the cue stimuli demonstrated that the right temporal-parietal and left posterior temporal regions were differentially activated during attentional allocation to the global and local levels, respectively. These effects started 240 msec after the cue stimulus. The late ERP components to the target stimuli also manifested the hemispheric global-local asymmetry as seen during the attentional shift. These electrophysiological results provided an asymmetrical neural basis for the "top-down" allocation of attention to global and local features and revealed the contribution of the temporal-parietal cortex to this attentional mechanism.

Key words: cerebral asymmetry; global and local attention; attention shift; hierarchical stimulus; event-related brain potential; temporal-parietal cortex; current source density

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Copyright © 0000 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/00/$05.00/0

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Rose, T. Sommer, and C. Buchel Integration of Local Features to a Global Percept by Neural Coupling Cereb Cortex, October 1, 2006; 16(10): 1522 - 1528. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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